Doodle

[citation needed] Typical examples of doodling are found in school notebooks, often in the margins, drawn by students daydreaming or losing interest during class.

Popular kinds of doodles include cartoon versions of teachers or companions in a school, famous TV or comic characters, invented fictional beings, landscapes, geometric shapes, patterns, textures, or phallic scenes.

Deeds Goes to Town, the main character explains the concept of "doodling" to a judge unfamiliar with the word, saying that "People draw the most idiotic pictures when they're thinking.

"[5][6][7] The character, who has travelled from a fictional town in Vermont, describes the word doodler as being "a name we made up back home" for people who make "foolish designs" on paper when their mind is on something else.

[7] The meaning "fool, simpleton" is intended in the song title "Yankee Doodle", originally sung by British colonial troops during the American Revolutionary War.

[8] According to a study published in the scientific journal Applied Cognitive Psychology, doodling can aid a person's memory by expending just enough energy to keep one from daydreaming, which demands a lot of the brain's processing power, as well as from not paying attention.

[2] According to graphologist and behavior specialist Ingrid Seger-Woznicki, "we [doodle] because we’re problem solving on an unconscious level" and seeking to "create our life without stressing about it".

[13] A young student named Onfim from 13th century Novgorod left a variety of doodles in his school notes, written on birch bark.